Next week, there's going to be a total eclipse of the sun. During the early hours of March 9th the new Moon will pass directly in front of the sun. The Moon's shadow will lance down toward Earth, making landfall only on the islands of Indonesia before it races out onto the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Graphic artist Larry Koehn of Shadow and Substance created this animated visibility map:

Inside the Moon's cool shadow, sky watchers can look up and see the sun's ghostly corona, a mesmerizing sight that longtime NASA eclipse expert Fred Espenak says "on a scale of 1 to 10--it's a million!"

Outside the narrow path of totality, the eclipse will be partial. Observers all around the Pacific will be able to see a crescent-shaped sun in the sky casting crescent-shaped shadows on the ground below. In Hawaii, 60% to 70% of the sun will be covered, quite a bit more than the 20% coverage in Alaska. The Australian sun will be as much as 50% blocked.

This is the last solar eclipse before the "Big One" next year. On August 21st, 2017, the sun and Moon will line up again. This time the Moon's shadow will cross the entire USA, creating a total eclipse in easy driving distance of tens of millions of people. It will likely be the best observed eclipse in human history. Stay tuned for a preview from Indonesia. www.spaceweather com